Lewis E. Lehrman

Lewis E. Lehrman was presented the National Humanities Medal at the White House for his work in American history. He has written for the Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Finest Hour, National Review, New York Sun, Harper’s, and The Churchill Project at Hillsdale College.

Lehrman has authored Lincoln at Peoria: The Turning Point (a history of Mr. Lincoln’s anti-slavery campaign from 1854 to 1865); Lincoln “by littles” (a book of essays about President Lincoln); and Money, Gold, and History (essays analyzing the modern history of money and its role in civilization), among other books.

Lehrman, with Richard Gilder and Gabor Boritt, established the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize, which awards the Lincoln Prize for the best work of the year on the Lincoln era. Lehrman and Gilder established the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University, which awards the Frederick Douglass Book Prize to the best work of the year on slavery, resistance, and abolition.

Together Lehrman and Gilder developed the Gilder Lehrman Collection of original historical manuscripts and documents to teach American history from primary sources. The collection is on deposit for public access at the New-York Historical Society.

The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History has developed a highly acclaimed national program for teaching American history in high schools and colleges throughout America (www.gilderlehrman.org). The Gilder Lehrman Institute, with George Washington’s Mount Vernon and Washington College, established the George Washington Prize for the best book of the year on the era of President Washington.

Lehrman received a B.A. from Yale and an M.A. in history from Harvard. He was a Carnegie Teaching Fellow in History at Yale and a Woodrow Wilson Fellow in History at Harvard. He has been awarded Honorary Degrees from Babson College, Gettysburg College, Lincoln College, Marymount University, and Thomas Aquinas College.